1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a lamp assembly and a cooking apparatus having the lamp assembly and, more particularly, to a lamp assembly that is structured to allow a lamp to be quickly and conveniently replaced, and a cooking apparatus having the lamp assembly.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, a cooking apparatus, such as a microwave oven or an electric oven, is provided with a cooking cavity therein. In the cooking cavity of the cooking apparatus, a lamp is installed to illuminate the cooking cavity and to allow a user to observe food being cooked.
The lamp is detachably installed in a lamp assembly mounted on one side of the cooking cavity. When a life span of the lamp ends, the lamp assembly is removed from the side of the cooking cavity and the lamp is replaced. The conventional lamp assembly includes a lamp casing on which the lamp is mounted, and a glass cover which prevents food from adhering to the lamp and passes light therethrough.
The lamp casing is formed in approximately a box shape which is open at a front thereof to accommodate the lamp. A flange is provided on an edge of the open front of the lamp casing to be radially outwardly extended therefrom.
The glass cover includes a rectangular frame opened at a center portion thereof, and a glass fitted into the open center portion. The rectangular frame is sized to come in contact with the flange of the lamp casing, and is mounted on the open front of the lamp casing.
In the meantime, the lamp assembly may be mounted on a microwave oven, or an electric oven performing a same function as the microwave oven. When the lamp assembly is mounted on the cooking apparatus that cooks food by irradiating microwaves into the cooking cavity, there must be provided a lamp protecting element to intercept the microwaves not to be irradiated to the lamp and to therefore prevent the lamp from being damaged.
For this purpose, the lamp assembly is provided with a lamp protecting plate that is located between the lamp casing and the glass cover and is perforated with holes each having a size that allows a hole to prevent microwaves from passing therethrough over an entire surface of the lamp protecting plate.
When the lamp assembly (which includes the lamp casing), the lamp protecting plate and the glass cover, are mounted on an upper plate or a sidewall plate of the cooking cavity and food is cooked by microwaves or electricity in the cooking cavity with the lamp being turned on, the user may observe an inside of the cooking cavity from outside the cooking cavity.
The conventional lamp assembly is constructed to be mounted on a sidewall plate of the cooking cavity by inserting a plurality of screws into screw holes arranged close to each other and formed along the flange of the lamp casing, the frame of the glass cover and an edge of the lamp protecting plate.
As a result, to replace the lamp installed on the lamp casing, the plurality of screws are withdrawn from the screw holes. The glass cover, the lamp protecting plate and the lamp casing are separated from each other, the lamp is removed from the lamp casing and replaced. Then the glass cover, the lamp protecting plate and the lamp casing are screwed into the sidewall plate of the cooking cavity again. Therefore, the cooking apparatus having the conventional lamp assembly is disadvantageous because it is inconvenient and requires excessive time to replace the lamp.